


Those 21st Century Things

by andthedreamgoesreducto



Series: The World Falls In Love With Two Super Soldiers [1]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve and Bucky trying to work out the 21st century, its harder than they thought
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 10:37:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6002725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthedreamgoesreducto/pseuds/andthedreamgoesreducto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Bucky try to work out what is going on with the 21st century, and exactly how they fit in. It turns out to be harder than they thought.<br/>Featuring some really bad dubstep music, the anti-SeaWorld campaign and new photo restoration technology.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those 21st Century Things

Before the world can begin to know who Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes really are, they need to know what the new world is like.

The new world is more complicated than originally thought.

**\-----SxB-----**

‘I have been watching this for over eight hours, and I still have no fucking clue why the world is so obsessed with the Kardashians’

Steve snorted from his place in the kitchen, grabbing two beers from the fridge and then pouring some chips into a bowl. ‘I guess it’s just one of those 21st century things’ he shrugged as he sat down next to Bucky and handed him a beer.

‘I think the memes are funny’ Bucky slips down to curl up into Steve’s side. ‘But reality TV confuses me. Why would you want to watch someone go shopping all the time?’

‘You’re forgetting that you binge-watched the _"Real Housewives of Atlanta"_ for two days straight last week’ Steve pointed out with a smirk.

‘The women on that show are almost as big a drama queens as Tony’ he chuckled. ‘ _Almost’_

‘I’ll give you that’ Steve agreed. ‘So, what movie do you want to watch tonight? If I have to put up with more jokes about what we were taught in SHIELD’s catch up programme, I _will_ make Tony get a swear jar’

‘They’ll just keep going with the "language" jokes, _Grandpa_ , especially with you swearin’ like a sailor _’_ Bucky laughed, jabbing an elbow into Steve’s side. ‘How about the one with _"Why is the rum gone?"_ Tony keeps on asking that at parties’

‘Pirates of the Caribbean it is’ Steve smiled ‘FRIDAY? Play _"Pirates of the Caribbean"_ please’

‘The first one, sir?’ the AI system replied- another 21st century thing, they had learned to accept.

‘How many are there?’

‘There are four, sir" came the reply.

‘Looks like we’re in this for the long haul, Stevie’ Bucky said, warmth spreading through his heart at Steve pulling him closer in response. ‘Let’s do this. Line them up’

**\-----SxB-----**

The next day found Tony screaming at the hacked music system playing a _"Why is the Rum gone?"_ remix on loop in any room he was in.

Steve and Bucky were found giggling like school children as they bought a bottle of rum to "say sorry".

**\-----SxB-----**

‘So, is this the best thing since sliced bread?’ Sam joked.

‘Man, I _remember_ when sliced bread was introduced and this is up there’ Bucky replied with a mouth full of "Kai Pad Med Mamuang Himmapan" (aka stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts).

‘And you get it delivered straight to your door’ Steve used his fork to point at Sam, a piece of beef and fried egg from his Phat Kaphrao dropping onto his plate. ‘You wanted stuff like this back in the 30’s, you would of have to go Thailand’

‘Steve, if this was around in the 30’s’ Bucky shook his head ‘You would have killed your lungs even more. You coughed enough as it was, the heat in this would have blown your socks off!’

‘Lucky all I ever wanted was apple pie then’ Steve laughed in reply, ‘though this is some good stuff’

‘Captain America’s favourite food is no longer apple pie?!?!’ Sam recoiled mockingly, ‘America can never know. I can see it now- _‘CAPTAIN AMERICA BETRAYS U.S. WITH THAI TAKEAWAY’-_ definitely a title Fox would run’

Steve hummed ‘What a delicious betrayal though’ and he shovelled another peanut-sauce covered fried spring roll into his mouth.

‘You two can really put food away, huh?’ Sam nodded at the several portions of takeaway on the dining table in his apartment.

‘Super serum side-affect’ Bucky nodded. ‘Body burns through everything to fuel it, need to eat a tonne. We could literally eat a horse-sized portion of this’

‘May have actually eaten horse during the war’ Steve added.

‘Beat starving,’ Bucky shrugged, ‘take horse any day over having stomach aches from being so hungry again.’

‘The cramps!’ Steve exclaimed ‘That’s one thing I will _never_ miss.’

‘You know, when we were young’ Bucky started ‘people said that everything would get better eventually. That one day there would be no poverty, nobody would ever starve, but you don’t have to walk a block in to find someone begging on the streets.’ His sombre tone immediately grabbed Sam’s attention. ‘What’s with that?’

Sam cleared his throat, automatically going into "21st century tutor/therapist" mood. ‘The world has come a long way since the 40’s when it comes to technology and communication and science. But in other ways, the world hasn’t changed at all; people who want power bad enough work their way up to the top, and by the time they get there, they’re so greedy they forget about all the people "below them"’ he snorted and stabbed a mushroom aggressively, ‘It’s bullshit because if we lived well, there’s enough food for everyone on the planet, but almost half of the world’s food is thrown away.’

‘What the fuck?!’ Steve spat.

‘I know, I know’ Sam quickly interrupted, ‘It’s bullshit. It’s a massive problem, and when you add a generation that can’t find the jobs they need to live above the breadline, a crumbling housing market and several other political issues that need to be sorted out, every problem gets mixed up with each other and becomes even more complicated than it was at the start.’

A solemn silence lingered around them as Steve and Bucky processed this. ‘So basically’ Steve said slowly, ‘the 21st century still has greedy shits that need to calm the fuck down.’

‘Basically’ Sam laughed at the phrasing. ‘But people never really take it well when you tell them that, so just don’t listen’

The determined look on Steve’s face was enough of a clue to let Sam and Bucky know that he had another idea about that.

**\-----SxB-----**

After that particular dinner conversation, it wasn’t unusual to find Steve pouring over reports about world hunger, or the housing crisis, or a variety of other controversial political topics. And then it became common for him and Bucky to start discussion with different Avengers about all of it. (One particular conversation with Natasha about the gender pay gap ended with her swearing furiously in Russian and then going to train to release some anger. Clint returned with more bruises than usual that particular day).

It didn’t take long for them both to be spotted helping in soup-kitchens, or listening to the stories of people on the streets when handing out scarfs and blankets or stopping to donate money to charities fundraising on the streets.

In their own way, they started to tell the world to stop being greedy shits.

**\-----SxB-----**

‘My ears. _My ears are bleeding’_

The loud and heavy "thumping" beat droned on and on in the quinjet. Bucky glared at the radio as if it had a personal vendetta against him. ‘Seriously, what is this?’

‘Dubstep’ Clint answered, wincing when he heard, what was at least meant to be, the drop. ‘Some really bad dubstep’

Bucky flipped the switch on the radio system, turning it off with a heavy sigh. ‘The 21st century has a shocking idea about what makes good music’ he grumbled in his seat. ‘What was wrong with jazz?’

‘It’s a 21st century thing’ Steve told him. ‘They’re all classics now’

Bucky grunted ‘Well fuck _that’_

**\-----SxB-----**

This however, did not stop Bucky from dancing along to Taylor Swift’s "Shake It Off", or singing some Ed Sheeran, or begging Steve to go to a Foo Fighters concert.

But whilst Bucky may have enjoyed some 21st century music, he liked it better when he and Steve would dance around the living room to the music they used to play in dance halls, the music he used to wish he could dance to with Steve instead a random girl. And now he could.

**\-----SxB-----**

He was surrounded by the beeping and vibrating of mobiles.

Everywhere he looked, nearly everybody was staring at a screen, scrolling on some form of social media, or sending one of those stupid yellow faces. Nobody seemed to actually talk anymore, except for shortened sentences or how many "likes" they had got on their latest "Instagram post".

It was everywhere.

‘Shouldn’t you be looking at the scans Tony?’ Steve pointedly asked from his place besides Bucky, who was sat on a makeshift examination table in Tony’s lab.

‘Yeah, yeah, Capsicle’ he said absent-mindedly, waving Steve away with one hand, and scrolling through twitter with the other.

‘Tony’ Steve said tersely.

‘What?’ he replied, finally looking at the other two in the lab.

Steve took a deep breath to find some sort of calm. ‘The scans. Of Bucky’s left arm. You know? The one you just designed, made and gave him. _Is everything okay with those scans?_ ’

‘Oh calm down’ Tony chuckled ‘It all looks good. Everything’s in place, none of its moved or gone wrong, and the rest of him has made the adjustment well. Nothing’s wrong, I don’t need to change anything so urgently that I don’t have time to look at what funny shit is on the internet today’

‘You’re obsessed with that thing I swear’ Steve pointed before stopping short ‘Wait, you said "change anything so urgently", so something does need to be changed? What’s wrong? Is Bucky okay?’ the rush of questions came spilling out.

‘Steve’ Bucky laughed, putting a hand on his shoulder, ‘I’m fine seriously, Tony’s just talking about any upgrades I might want’

‘Upgrades?’ Steve’s face screwed in an expression of confusion.

‘Yeah, upgrades, Old Man’ Tony said, flipping a screen round to show some updated designs of Bucky’s arm. ‘There’s new stuff every day. If you wanted’ Tony turned to Bucky ‘I could install flame-throwers into your fingers’

‘I’ll pass’ Bucky deadpanned.

‘And yet’ Steve interrupted, ‘you’re still obsessed with looking at a small piece of metal’

‘Well how else is the world meant to know what I had for breakfast?’ Tony asked, half-mocking, half-serious.

Bucky ducked his head to hide his smirk, as Steve stared blankly at Tony, before shaking his head and dropping his head into his hands. ‘Ridiculous’ came his muffled whine ‘This century is absolutely ridiculous’

**\-----SxB-----**

Despite all of his protests about them all being so obsessed with their phones, you could find Steve staring at his screensaver quickly when he thought no one was looking.

No one was surprised when they saw it was a picture of him and Bucky, laughing as they took the photo in the small garden balcony in the Tower.

**\-----SxB-----**

‘WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?’

‘Ooooohhhhh, Grandpa said a naughty word!’ Tony sang cheerfully, clapping his hands excitedly, as he, Clint, Natasha, Bucky and Bruce looked at what Steve was pointing to.

‘Tony, shut up!’ Steve snapped. ‘What in the name of God, is this?!’

‘It’s the anti-SeaWorld campaign’ Clint explained.

‘I know _that’_ Steve sighed angrily, tapping his foot impatiently, ‘I mean, what the fuck is going on with this? It says that the whales live in tanks that are the size of the equivalent to a whale’s bath tubs! They can swim up to 100 miles a day, why is this a thing?!’

‘They what?!’ Bucky interrupted in shock.

‘Yep!’ Steve continued his ranting, ‘And they only live for 9 years on average in captivity, but in the wild their life expectancy is from 30 to 50 _fucking years_ ’ he ended angrily with a kick to the nearest thing he could find, which ended up being the table in the middle of the Tower’s common area.

‘That’s okay’ Tony said as it crashed and cracked against the wall ‘I didn’t like that table anyway’

 _‘This shit isn’t okay’_ Steve fumed. ‘Why the fuck is this allowed?!’

‘I swear this century gets weirder every day’ Bucky mumbled furiously.

‘There’s loads of protests against SeaWorld’ Bruce pointed out. ‘Loads of people are against what they do to the orcas’

‘Thank fuck some people have some sense in this century!’ Bucky exclaimed, throwing his hands up. Quickly, a resolute look crossed his face. He turned to Steve to find his expression was mirrored. The groan that came from the others signalled, that they too knew Steve wasn’t about to let this carry on further into the 21st century.

**\-----SxB-----**

When the photo of Steve in his _"Thanks, but no tanks"_ t-shirt surfaced, the internet went berserk.

The video uploaded to the Official Avengers website, of him and Bucky being taken on a certified, safe, and respectful boat trip to go and see orcas in the wild, crashed the site within five minutes.

**\-----SxB-----**

With the return of not just Steve, but Bucky too, the Smithsonian begrudgingly made the offer to return their possessions which made up part of the exhibit dedicated to them.

Deciding not to piss off half the public, Steve and Bucky simply asked for the return of their photos, though the Smithsonian was more than welcome to make copies to keep and display. When the originals arrived back to them both, they were delivered carefully, through a clearly thought-out and well-planned exchange.

The package was well-wrapped, with several layers of bubble wrap inside the cardboard box marked "FRAGILE" repeatedly. Taking them out of the envelope had been nerve-wrecking, but completely worth it when they saw the photos, looking almost brand-new.

‘They restored them’ Steve whispered softly. Bucky quietly gasped at the photos, every little detail clearer than they had ever been. Bucky had seen the photos taken nowadays, how far cameras had come, but he didn’t know there was technology in the 21st century to restore old photos. They looked over each of them carefully, gazing at the photos of Steve’s parents wedding, one or two of his baby photos, some of distant relatives.

‘Oh wow’ Bucky laughed slightly, shaking his head as they held onto one photo for longer.

It was the two of them, taken the morning of May 25th 1941, when they had gone to Ebbets Field to watch the baseball game. Bucky had Steve pulled into his side tightly, both of them smiling so brightly and holding onto the other so fiercely. A random photographer at the game was taking photos when Steve asked if they could pay him to take one of them. They clubbed together with the little amount of money they had to spare but it was worth it and took pride of place in Steve’s apartment.

It was a happy memory they both treasured. The photo captured all of it in a moment, the closeness of their friendship all those years ago and here they were now, even closer than they ever thought could be possible back in the 40’s.

Bucky’s hand reached out and quickly grabbed Steve’s tightly, Steve gripping back just as strong. They turned to look at one another, the photo still held between them.

‘I am never leaving you again’ Bucky swore vehemently.

Steve tipped his head forward, pressing his forehead against Bucky’s. ‘I know’ he whispered back. ‘Till the end of the line’

Bucky took a deep breath and smiled, slowly moving to press his lips to Steve’s. ‘Till the end of the line’ he murmured before closing the distance completely.

**\-----SxB-----**

In the end, they are a little bit broken. They are sometimes naïve when it comes to people from the 21st century and their behaviour, in ways they may never really pick up. They are protesters with the best of causes. They are men out of time trying to find a place in a completely crazy century.

They are together. In their old world, in this new one, in every world imaginable, that is their place. They are a team through it all. They are each other’s. Whether the world knows that or not, it will never change.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first attempt at Stucky fanfiction and I hope you enjoyed it!  
> I have some ideas about where to take this series, so hopefully they won't take too long and will be up in no time.  
> The facts about orcas (I went a bit social justice there, but it's Steve, can you blame me?) can be found at seaworldofhurt.com. The t-shirt described is based on a real design and can be found online. The fact about half the world's food being wasted was taken from an article by the Guardian. If anyone wants a direct link to any of these, please message me.  
> Thank you so much reading this, I really hope you enjoyed and please review, look or bookmark! x


End file.
